Czech renowned violin player and singer Iva Bittová will perform with her son Antonín at Czech Center New York.
“Počúvaj, co to v zemi hučí” (Listen to what roars in the land)
Iva Bittová – violin and vocals
Antonín Fajt – piano and electronics
Free registration here.
An inspiration for this acoustic concert is the folk music of Moravia and Slovakia (and also of L. Janáček and B. Bartók), as well as the music of the Roma people, of the Balkans, India, and Africa. Both have a deep affection for music composition, enabling them to enrich the concert with their musical creations. The repertoire will vary in style.
"We have been performing together our occasional program already for 17 years. Tony was 14 years old when I offered him our first family music communication. It was by the lake in Luz am See – at a music festival in Austria. Since then, we have embraced every opportunity to play together and further develop our interpretational and improvisational abilities."
Iva Bittová is a Czech avant-garde violinist, singer, and composer. She began her career as an actor in the mid-1970s, appearing in several Czech feature films, but switched to playing violin and singing in the early 1980s. She started recording in 1986, and by 1990, her unique vocal and instrumental technique gained her international recognition. Since then, she has performed regularly throughout Europe, the United States and Japan, and has released over eight solo albums.
Iva Bittová was born in 1958 in Bruntál in northern Moravia in what was then Czechoslovakia. Both of her parents were musicians. Her mother Lidmila was a pre-school teacher; her father Koloman Bitto was a musician strongly influenced by the land of his birth – southern Slovakia. His main instruments were string bass, cimbalom, guitar, and trumpet. This exceptional ability to play almost any instrument he laid his hands on, whether performing in classical or folk music styles, greatly influenced his three daughters as they grew up.
Iva attended drama pre-school, specializing in violin and ballet. In due course, she graduated from Music Conservatory in Brnoin drama and music. During her studies, Iva took part-time engagements as an actress and musician in Brno’s Divadlo Husa na provázku (Goose On A String Theater). Around this time, she also featured as an actress in radio, TV, and movie productions. Later on, while working full time in the theater, she re-kindled her interest in playing violin, an instrument she had set aside in her younger years. After her father’s early death, she decided to follow in his professional footsteps as an instrumentalist and by composing her own music.
In addition to her musical career, Bittová has continued acting and still occasionally appears in feature films. In 2003, she played the part of Zena in Želary, a film nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2004 Academy Awards. In 2007, she moved to the US and settled in Hudson Valley in New York state, where she founded a private Zingora Vocal School in 2018.
She has two sons, Matouš and Antonín. With Antonín, she performs as the acoustic duo Bittová + Fajt jr. Both of Iva’s sisters are professional drama and music performers. More about Iva Bittová at www.bittova.com
Antonín Fajt is a pianist, jazz musician and contemporary music composer. In his works, he focuses on the topics of nocturno esthetics, interpretation of landscape rythms and connecting folk music and contemporary improvization. He studied music at Bard College and at University of California, Irvine.
